Diabetes is a major risk factor for ischaemic heart disease; the relative risk increases at least twofold among diabetic men and even more so for women.1 Diabetes is associated with more extensive coronary artery disease and an increased risk of cardiac death.2 Even in the absence of frank diabetes, glucose intolerance has been associated with a heightened risk of coronary artery disease independent of age, blood pressure, and other risk factors.3 Moreover, patients with diabetes are more likely to sustain an acute myocardial infarction,4 and in these patients diabetes is a major independent predictor of morbidity and mortality.5